Sí, Se Puede

Forever 21, founded in Los Angeles in 1984 by Don and Jin Chang, is an American H&M, selling inexpensive—O.K., cheap—clothing whose built-in obsolescence is timed to the speed of the broadband generation. (The older, dial-up generation likes it, too, when slumming at the mall.) “Made in L.A.,” a documentary that airs on PBS the day after Labor Day (check local listings), tells the story of three Latina garment-industry workers who, in 2001, helped launch a boycott of the company, on the ground that Forever 21, as one lawyer representing the workers said, “systematically demanded and perpetuated sweatshop conditions.” One worker, who becomes a labor organizer over the course of the movie, is shown travelling to New York, where she visits the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. “Everything remains the same,” she says, with a wistful smile. After three years, the company reached an agreement with the workers. The terms were confidential, but the two sides issued a joint press release. In the film, the lawyer reads a portion of it aloud for the camera: “Garment workers should labor in lawful conditions and should be treated fairly and with dignity. The parties remain committed to insuring that the clothing Forever 21 sells in its stores is made under lawful conditions.”

Here’s the trailer:

Dana Goodyear, a staff writer, was on the editorial staff of The New Yorker from 1999 to 2007, when she began writing full time for the magazine.